SARATOGA SPRINGS >> Since new owners took over Saratoga Chips last year, sales numbers have soared, and to celebrate America’s first kettle chip at the Saratoga Race Course Aug. 24, an airplane pilot and skydivers towing the company’s banners will soar as well.

The business has achieved a triple-digit increase in sales and market share from the summer of 2013 to the present. Sales have grown by 177 percent, and market share has expanded from 56 stores carrying the brand to 410 stores. Projections for 2015 point to an increase of $10 million in revenue.

Saratoga Chips’ growth has been driven largely by the addition of three new varieties and by distribution gains.

Throughout the past year, the company has also invested significantly in advertising, securing a contract with the New York Racing Association for the 2014 Saratoga Race Course season. This has put the Saratoga-based snack into the hands of thousands of new customers along with the national and international visitors who attend the track.

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Saratoga Chips, which began as a family business, is doing all this with a team of 12 employees, plus “chipterns,” a word Director of Marketing Rachelle Boff uses for the company’s interns.

The president and managing partner of Saratoga Chips is Jim Schneider, former president of Beech Nut Nutrition Corp. Boff, who has worked with Schneider in the past, calls him influential in the market and passionate about his business.

“His knowledge of the grocery industry is huge,” she said. “He understands the grocery/retail relationship.”

Balancing Schneider’s expertise is company partner Joseph Boff, Boff’s father, who is a local real estate investor. The new owners kept on Danny Jameson, who started the company in 2009 and is now its vice president. His four-year history with Saratoga Chips and his knowledge of the region proved valuable as the business expanded its product line and market share.

The historic Saratoga Springs snack was created in 1853 and reintroduced in 2009 as Jameson’s Moon Brand Original Saratoga Chips.

“One of the first things we changed was the packaging,” he said. “We used to sell the potato chips in a blue box that was readily identifiable by local consumers; but that packaging confused other markets. People would wonder if it was taffy.”

The new Saratoga Chips bags are well-branded with the two things for which Spa City is famous: the potato chip and the horse racing. Pictures of Thoroughbreds on the track, combined with a picture of the chips, make the bags easily identifiable in all markets, as well as uniquely Saratogian.

Inside, the chips themselves have become healthier and more gourmet. Today’s six varieties include original, rosemary garlic, honey barbecue, dark russet, balsamic vinegar and sea salt, and cracked pepper and sea salt.

“The quality of our product is why we have been successful in new markets with new customers,” wrote Schneider in a press release. “Our chips are certified non-genetically-modified-organism, 100 percent all-natural, gluten-free and allergen-free with no trans fats, no cholesterol and no preservatives; plus, they are certified kosher-approved.”

The chips’ original market was a 70-mile radius around Saratoga Springs, Jameson said. When Hannaford, one of the company’s retailers, suggested Saratoga Chips expand into the Hudson Valley, he felt terrified.

“But now we can take it to the next level,” he said.

With the new owners behind him, the business was able to grow, focusing on the market from Albany to Buffalo. The company plans to continue increasing availability throughout New York; Pennsylvania; and the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and Southeast regions to have Saratoga Chips in markets from Maine to Florida and west to the Ohio valley.

The factory where the chips are made is in central Pennsylvania, a location the staff said is ideal for shipping to the mid-Atlantic region market.

New stores carrying the chips comprise Tops, ShopRite, Fairway and Walmart, among others.

“We want to be on the leading edge,” Jameson said. “In an industry as competitive as snack food, we couldn’t survive otherwise.”

The ingredients for the potato chips are as healthful and gourmet as possible, Boff said. “For example, our vinegar and salt chips use balsamic vinegar and Himalayan sea salt,” she said. “It’s a nicer element. We actually ruin people for other chips. People just can’t eat Lay’s anymore.”